Wednesday, 30 October 2013

The tall dark and handsome type, from the same shelf as Paul Nicholas and David Essex perhaps, but not destined for top billing. Peter Blake is probably most remembered as the insufferably cocky Kirk St Moritz in the lonely hearts sitcom 'Dear John' with Ralph Bates and Belinda Lang. I seem to remember it being a genuinely jaw-dropping plot twist when Kirk was revealed to be the alter-ego of a timid sad-sack who lived with his elderly mother at the end of the series.

After drama school he started out in trendy stage productions like 'Jesus Christ Superstar', 'Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' and 'Rocky Horror', while snagging TV extra roles and working as a stage manager in Soho strip clubs. Perhaps his contacts there led to his first film part in the sex comedy 'Intimate Games' (1976) a typical affair with the usual mix of goose-pimpled dollybirds and veteran character actors (in this case, Mary Millington meets George Baker, Hugh Lloyd, Queenie Watts, and Johnny Vyvyan).

Probably seeing some bosoms in 'Intimate Games' (1976)

In the forgotten office sitcom, 'Fiddlers Three'. A re-jigged version of 'The Squirrels'

An interesting aside: He was Eddie, the rock'n'roll revival Pepsi drinker in their successful '70s advertising campaign. Like this one.There was even a spin-off single… here's his performance on 'Top of the Pops'… Lipsmackin'

Monday, 21 October 2013

The delightful Ms Romain (billed as Yvonne Warren pre-1960) appeared in a number of mid-fifties to mid-sixties movies and TV shows, impressively handling 'icy and sophisticated' as easily as 'sultry and sensual'. Sadly, there are few classics among them, with Hammer's 'The Curse of the Werewolf' (1961) probably the best known. Her character doesn't live to see her son grow up into the werewolf (played by a young Oliver Reed) but the marketing appeal of her curvy figure ensures that she is shown cowering from his fangs on all the publicity material anyway.

A young Ollie Reed prefiguring the middle-aged Ollie Reed
in 'Curse of the Werewolf' (1961).

She's teamed up with Oliver Reed again in 'The Night Creatures' (1962) a retelling of the Dr Syn/Vicar of Dymchurch smuggling yarn starring Peter Cushing and Patrick Allen. Other interesting cinema parts include the Boris Karloff drug-addict/bodysnatcher shocker 'Corridors of Blood' (1958), Melina the lion-tamer in Circus of Horrors' (1960), b-movie fare like 'Devil Doll' (1964), the Ann-Margaret permissive society comedy 'The Swinger (1966). And then of course, there's the even-worse-than-usual Elvis Presley movie 'Double Trouble' (1967) with a rapidly declining Elvis involved in some silly European skullduggery.

In the Peter Vaughan insurance mystery 'Smokescreen' (1965)

Twistin' in the shlocky ventriloquist horror 'Devil Doll' (1964)

On TV she shows up in 'Danger Man', 'Top Secret' and 'The Saint', but she fades from the screen after that making a last brief movie appearance as the corpse in the star-studded 'The Last of Sheila' in 1973.

Just about to be mauled by a lion in 'Circus of Horrors' (1960)

She's married to the Oscar-winning composer and lyricist Leslie Bricusse, so perhaps appearing in these lack-lustre productions lost its appeal. In some ways it's a shame, because she came perilously close to stardom - who knows what the rest of the '70s and '80s could have had in store if she's carried on acting.

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Diane Langton:A successful belter of stage musicals who has made a few forays into TV and movie roles since the early '70s. She was in a few moderately saucy movies during the depressing drizzly decline of the old school British cinema industry: 'Confessions of a Pop Performer' (1975), 'Carry On England' (1976), and one slightly surprisingly example of its renewal, 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover' (1989).

With Linda Regan (right) as the Climax Sisters in
'Confessions of a Pop Performer' (1975)

As Private Easy in 'Carry On England' (1976)

On the small screen, she's been in the 'Carry On Laughing' TV spin-off, as a sort of ersatz Barbara Windsor, 'Only Fools and Horses' as Del's old flame June, and in the revival of 'The Rag Trade' in the '70s. She's also had some regular drama roles, in 'Heartbeat', 'EastEnders' and 'Hollyoaks', for instance.

Monday, 14 October 2013

Firm of jaw and steely of eye, John Flanagan has played a lot of coppers in his acting career. He had his own series in the early '70s, 'Parkin's Patch' in which he played keen young PC Moss Parkin, but he also pounded the beat in 'The Sweeney' (as DS Matt Matthews), 'Softly Softly: Task Force', 'The Bill', 'Casualty' and films including 'The Naked Civil Servant' (1975) and 'The Medusa Touch' (1978).

In Alan Plater's 1973 TV play, 'The Land of Green Ginger'

Rather older and more serious in 'Inspector Wycliffe Mysteries'

I enjoyed the Play for Today from 1973 that he stars in with Gwen Taylor – Alan Plater's 'The Land of Green Ginger'. It's a real period piece, but can be found in its entirety on YouTube: Click here.

He's also in Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil' (1985), but I had play around with the pause button to find him.

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Hugh Walters:† March 2nd 1939 - February 13 2015Compact, birdlike actor with a knack for careful speech patterns. He has turned these to good use playing officious, prissy and occasionally camp comedic roles. In drama, he sticks in the memory for his bravura turn as the wheelchair-bound Vic in 'Survivors' which was neither funny nor fussy,
and he was in several 'Doctor Who' stories ('The Chase', 'The Deadly Assassin' and
'Revelation of the Daleks'), as well as episodes of 'Z Cars', 'The New Avengers', 'A Fine Romance', 'The Miss Marple Mysteries', 'Rumpole of the Bailey', 'All
Creatures Great and Small', 'Lovejoy' and 'Boon'. He was also Alison's father in the clever Simon Callow/Brenda Blethyn comedy 'Chance in a Million'

In the Miss Marple TV mystery 'The Body in the Library'

With Eleanor Bron in the 1985 'Doctor Who'
story 'Revelation of the Daleks'

He appears in a few interesting movies: '1984' (1984), 'Brimstone & Treacle' (1982), 'The Missionary' (1982), the floppy Alan Price sequel to 'Alfie', 'Alfie Darling ' (1976), right back to the Terry-Thomas steampunk romp 'Rocket to the Moon' (1967), 'and the Dave Clark Five movie 'Catch Us If You Can' (1965).

Tuesday, 8 October 2013

A modern archetype of the frumpy Northern busybody, largely thanks to the Lancastrian actress's two longest-running roles: as Renee Roberts (Bradshaw as was) in 'Coronation Street' and as Hylda Baker's stooge Lily Tattersall in pickle sitcom 'Nearest and Dearest' with her mute, infirm husband Walter ('Has he been?') played by Eddie Malin.

As Lily in the film version of 'Nearest and Dearest' (1972)

Since poor Renee met her end in a car crash in 'Coronation Street' in 1980, Madge Hindle has appeared in a sprinkling of roles on TV, such as the modern melodrama 'The Rector's Wife', and better than average comedies 'All Quiet on the Preston Front' and the Gwen Taylor vehicle 'Barbara'.

Renee Bradshaw weds Councillor Roberts in 'Coronation Street'

Trivia corner: Madge's daughter, Charlotte Hindle, was co-presenter of wacky 1980s Saturday morning schedule-filler 'Get Fresh', with Gaz Top and oozing alien puppet Gilbert. Gilbert was voiced by Phil Cornwell and made by 'Spitting Image' duo Fluck & Law. As part of the design, they recycled the lips from a discarded Ringo Starr puppet.

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Donald Sumpter:Severe-looking character actor offering broken-nosed toughness combined with an aura of intelligence, which allows him to play parts that depict deep wisdom or low cunning with equal veracity. His only cinema starring role was as real-life murderer Dennis Neilson in the rather tasteless 'The Black Panther' (1977), but he also appears in better-known movies like the Hammer monster romp 'The Lost Continent' (1967), the sexploitative 'Groupie Girl' (1970), 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' (1971), 'Stardust' (1974), 'Enigma' (2001), 'The Constant Gardener' (2005), and 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' (2011). He's also in the early Mike Leigh film 'Bleak Moments' (1971) and the strange-looking David Hemmings movie 'The Walking Stick' (1970).

In sleazy rocker mode in 'Groupie Girl (1970)

In spiritual mode in 'Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979)

His TV portfolio is substantial, and ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous, or from 'Black Mirror', 'Our Friends in the North' and 'Jesus of Nazareth' to 'Merlin', 'Game of Thrones' and 'Holby City'. A fine all rounder.